Accounting History: Some British Contributions

In recent years there has been increasing interest shown in the history and development of accounting practices; accounting records are an important source of historical data, and they can also provide evidence of varied organizational structures and systems of management control. This volume brings together published work by the major British scholars in the field, and is intended as a contribution to accounting scholarship on the 500th anniversary of Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica (1494). Contributions are grouped under the following headings: The Ancient World; Before Double Entry; Corporate Accounting; Local Government Accounting; Cost and Management Accounting; Accounting Theory; and Accounting in Context. Contributors: W. T. Baxter, S. Burchell, C. D. B. Clubb, T. E. Cooke, J. R. Edwards, D. A. R. Forrester, J. Freear, J. J. Glynn, P. D. A. Harvey, A. G. Hopwood, P. Hudson, R. H. Jones, G. A. Lee, T. A. Lee, R. H. Macve, S. Marriner, M. Mepham, M. Mumford, C. J. Napier, E. Newell, C. W. Nobes, C. W. Noke, R. H. Parker, D. A. Postles, D. W. Rathbone, B. S. Yamey

Review :
`a brick of a book ... a ripping yarn it is too' Independent `As a scholarly work it is hard to fault. The contributors include many leading UK accounting academics, and the breadth of the references in the text is proof of the diversity of interests covered in the 23 chapters. But Accounting History is not a dry study of the purely technical changes in accounting practice ... a valuable contribution to the Pacioli celebrations.' Accountancy Age 'It is difficult, if not impossible, to do justice to the individual contributions in a short review ... Research in accounting history has an important role to play in understanding problems raised by macroeconomic and microeconomic accounting and this book and its contributors make a significant contribution.' Richard P. Brief, New York Univerity, Accounting and Business Research `The volume is beautifully presented, meticulously edited, and well-indexed. ... I came away with the wish that I could have been born British so that my work might then have been at least considered for inclusion.' The Accounting Review `The volume is beautifully presented, meticulously edited, and well-indexed ... I came away with the wish that I could have been born British so that my work might then have been at least considered for inclusion.' Book Reviews, June 1995 `This collection should bring before a wider audience a representative sample of those accounting historians, many of whom are continuing to develop new approaches to the subject, who have made substantial progress in integrating their aims and methods with those of economic and business historians.' Business History `...the editors clearly had a serious purpose in bringing together these articles by historians and accountants. They inform unwary users of accounting records...of the serious problems of interpretation and comparison.' The Economic History Review `Parker and Yamey and the Research Board of the ICAEW have provided a volume whose presence will endure when the revelry ceases. The book represents an exquisitely presented synthesis of significant writings produced by British accounting historians which will adorn the bookshelf. It is one of the increasing number of important works which stand as literary monuments to the growing respectability and coming of age of accounting history ... it will be utilized as an important first source by accounting historians and will prove to be a valuable introduction to the mysteries of accounting history for economic and social historians ... the papers represent the fruits of well-researched work and the quality of the writing makes for an absorbing read.' Accounting, Business and Financial History `The scholarship is impressive ... a most interesting collection of essays, offering valuable insights not only into its own field, but into the wider subject of economic and entrepreneurial logic in past ages.' Sidney Pollard, Financial History Review `Professors Parker and Yamey, in an extensive work, provide us with fascinating contributions to accounting scholarship ... The collection, as entertaining as it is relevant to our present time of rapid accounting change, is highly recommended ... The book invites the attention of all accounting historians and wishes we would value each others' contributions. It is a fine invitation; we should not hesitate to accept ... Here is a history of many of the frequent small developments of accounting techniques, by authors too often unknown, which provide our profession benchmarks of progress, feathers on our arrow of time. The case for historical perspective is never better made than in this book.' The Accounting Historians Journal